Although I am a Christian, I can justify the belief of reincarnation by symbolizing aspects throughout my own life. I feel that certain routines and situations of our lives could be considered as having a circular worldview. For example, I believe that January 1st, New Years, marks the beginning of this circle, only to begin the circle again when celebrating New Years a year later.
Annual happening justify this belief due to the fact that each year we celebrate the same holidays, on the same days. Seasons cycle occur throughout the same time period each year, and allows us to predict this cycle the following year because of the rotation in a circular cycle by beginning and ending once each year.
Another powerful example is the process of starting school. School shopping begins in early August, you begin school in late August, and are released in late May. Summer break allows three months of freedom, and when August comes this circular routine begins once again.
Although as a Christian I was raised to look at situations in a timeline prospective, the class Introduction to Religion as allowed me to develop and form other opinions through learning other religions and beliefs. Each day we live through a circular worldview without recognizing it. We wake up each day and perform the same routines each day, week, month, and year.
Hey Allison!
This was a good post and you brought up a good point. As Christians we are raised to view the world as one long timeline with an eventual end. You mentioned that because we celebrate the same holidays every year, we seem to have a circular worldview. I would challenge that (when compared with our religion) our holidays are just rituals, and not a circular pattern. I think the circular patterns we have are more of a culture thing, not a religion thing. School is culture, along with our daily routine. The seasons comment is harder to challenge, but I guess what about places like Mexico where the seasons don’t change as dramatically as ours do. Would that still be circular?
Again, thanks for sharing!